1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to heat presses and, more particularly, to heat presses that are easy to use and expandable for greater workloads.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hobbyists and small businesses have a need for heat press machines for transferring graphic images or characters on to garments or similar substrates that are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. Ideally, such machines should be relatively compact, and capable of being easily setup and easily operated on a work support surface.
Heat presses are typically swing arm or clam-style presses that use an upper heat platen and lower substrate platen that are aligned, and pressed together over a garment or substrate when placed on the lower platen for the purpose of transferring graphic images or characters to the garment or substrate. It is common to exchange the type of heat press machine to accommodate different garments or substrates. Features on the press that allow the lower platens to be easily and quickly exchanged to maximize production are highly desirable.
The graphics and images are typically aligned in portrait or landscape orientation on garments or substrates. Presses that allow the operator to easily and quickly change the orientation of the platen to accommodate vertical or horizontal graphics or images on the garment or substrate to maximize production size requirements would also be highly desirable.
For many pressing projects, large quantities of garments or substrate articles are imprinted. Because the transfer process is permanent, a considerable effort and time is spent properly aligning the garment or substrate over the lower platen before pressing. Also, because the heat transfer process takes several seconds, a considerable amount of idle time is spent by the operator waiting for the heat transfer process to be completed. While heat presses with one set of upper and lower platens may be adequate for hobbyists or businesses with small imprinting projects, hobbyists or businesses with larger imprinting projects would find presses with multiple printing stations that allow the operator to setup one station while the heat transfer process is performed on the other station would be highly desirable.
Many businesses need heat presses that can be expanded to meet the growing needs of the business. Unfortunately, most heat presses available today are not expandable thereby forcing business owners to replace their small, fully functional heat presses with new, larger capacity heat presses or purchase a second or third machine like they already possess. Exchanging small heat presses for larger capacity heat presses is not only expensive but also inefficient because it requires operators to learn new press operations. Buying a second or third heat press identical to the first heat press also occupies more space and may require more than one person to simultaneously operate all of the heat presses.
What is needed is a compact, multipurpose heat press that is easy to learn, enables lower platens to be exchanged, allows pressing in both portrait and landscape orientations, and uses a modular design that can be easily expanded to increase its pressing capacity.